Francisella tularensis (Ft) causes a frequently fatal, acute necrotic pneumonia in humans and animals. Following lethal Ft infection in mice, infiltration of the lungs by predominantly immature myeloid cells and subsequent myeloid cell death drive pathogenesis and host mortality. However, following sub-lethal Ft challenge, more mature myeloid cells are elicited and are protective. In addition, inflammasome-dependent IL-1β and IL-18 are important for protection. As Nlrp3 appears dispensable for resistance to infection with Francisella novicida, we considered its role during infection with the virulent Type A strain SchuS4 and the attenuated Type B live vaccine strain LVS...

BACKGROUND: Communication with children is a major concern for mothers with breast cancer. Chinese people have specific understanding of cancer and death, which may affect their way of communication. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to explore how Chinese mothers with breast cancer communicate about their illness with their children. METHODS: An interpretive description study was conducted. Forty mothers with nonterminal breast cancer in mainland China were interviewed individually...

BAG3, a member of BAG co-chaperone family, is induced by stressful stimuli such as heat shock and heavy metals. Through interaction with various binding partners, BAG3 is thought to play a role in cellular adaptive responses against stressful conditions in normal and neoplastic cells. 2'-Hydroxycinnamaldehyde (HCA) is a natural derivative of cinnamaldehyde and has antitumor activity in various cancer cells. In the present study, for the first time, we identified that HCA induced BAG3 expression and BAG3-mediated apoptosis in cancer cells...

Recently, increasing numbers of cell culture experiments with 3D spheroids presented better correlating results in vivo than traditional 2D cell culture systems. 3D spheroids could offer a simple and highly reproducible model that would exhibit many characteristics of natural tissue, such as the production of extracellular matrix. In this paper numerous cell lines were screened and selected depending on their ability to form and maintain a spherical shape. The effects of increasing concentrations of doxorubicin (DXR) on the integrity and viability of the selected spheroids were then measured at regular intervals and in real-time...

BACKGROUND: H7N9 human cases were first detected in mainland China in March 2013. Circulation of this virus has continued each year shifting to typical winter months. We compared the clinical and epidemiologic characteristics for the first three waves of virus circulation. METHODS: The first wave was defined as reported cases with onset dates between March 31-September 30, 2013, the second wave was defined as October 1, 2013-September 30, 2014 and the third wave was defined as October 1, 2014-September 30, 2015...

PURPOSE: Extranodal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma (ENKTL), nasal-type, is a distinct subtype of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. ENKTL is sensitive to radiotherapy, but the prognosis is poorer than those of other types of early stage lymphoma. To date, optimal treatment strategies for patients with early stage ENKTL have not been fully defined. METHODS: We retrospectively investigated the efficacy and safety of pegaspargase, gemcitabine, and oxaliplatin (P-GEMOX) combined with different dose radiotherapy (RT) in the treatment of 35 newly diagnosed, stage IE to IIE ENKTL patients at our institution from October 2011 to September 2015...

INTRODUCTION According to the National Confidential Enquiry into Perioperative Deaths (NCEPOD), out-of-hours operating in trauma and orthopaedics should be reserved for life or limb threatening cases only. The aim of our study was to determine the nature of non-emergency work carried out in our trust at night in 2015. The overall efficacy and clinical safety of the services provided was evaluated. METHODS Surgical activity undertaken after 9pm was reviewed along with patient ASA (American Society of Anesthesiologists) grade, grade of operating surgeon and any complications that occurred following the procedure...

PURPOSE: Medulloblastoma is the most prevalent childhood brain cancer. Children with medulloblastoma typically receive a combination of surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. The survival rate is high but survivors often have sequelae from radiotherapy of the entire developing brain and spinal cord. Ongoing genetic studies have suggested that decreasing the dose of radiation might be possible among children with favorable molecular variants; however, this may result in an increased disease recurrence...

INTRODUCTION: Elderly patients with serious chronic diseases often present to the emergency department (ED) in the last moments of their life, many with identifiable trajectories of dying: organ failure; advanced cancer; and chronic frailty. These patients and their families may benefit more from good end-of-life (EOL) care provision than the standard resuscitative approach. This study aimed to determine the incidence and nature of death among patients aged 65 years and above in an ED, and characterise their trajectories of dying...

We report the case of a 41-year-old female with neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1) who developed a rosette-forming glioneuronal tumor (RGNT) in the tectal plate. This tumor was diagnosed in 2002 when the patient presented with obstructive hydrocephalus, which was subsequently treated with a ventriculoperitoneal shunt and then an endoscopic third ventriculostomy. Initially thought to be a pilocytic astrocytoma, it was followed with serial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) until tumor progression and development of a large fourth ventricular cystic component prompted resection via suboccipital craniotomy...

Nanoparticles are widely used to deliver anticancer drugs and inhibit tumor growth without systemic toxicity. Recently, chitosan has received much attention as a functional biopolymer for encapsulation of small interfering RNA (siRNA). Because of cationic nature, chitosan efficiently encapsulate siRNA and forming nanoparticles. Moreover, biocompatible and biodegradable properties represent chitosan as potential candidate for in vivo siRNA delivery. In the present study we designed carboxymethyl dextran (CMD) chitosan nanoparticles (ChNPs) to encapsulat snail siRNA and anticancer drug doxorubicin (DOX)...

Disparities between African American and Caucasian men in prostate cancer (PCa) diagnosis and treatment in the United States have been well established, with significant racial disparities documented at all stages of PCa management, from differences in the type of treatment offered to progression-free survival or death. These disparities appear to be complex in nature, involving biological determinants as well as socioeconomic and cultural aspects. We present a review of the literature on racial disparities in the diagnosis of PCa, treatment, survival, and genetic susceptibility...

Oleuropein (OL), a natural phenolic compound, comprises the major constituent of Olea europea leaves and unprocessed olives, and OL is considered to be the principal components that confer the characteristic taste and stability of olive oil. Oxidative damage induced by H2O2 treatment can irreversibly damage the L-02 cells, resulting in cell death and apoptosis. Whether the effects of oxidative stress could be attenuated in cultured human L-02 cells by incubation with OL is still unknown. In this research, the function of OL in protecting human L-02 cells against H2O2 induced cell death and cell apoptosis was investigated, and the mechanism by which OL underlies the effect was also examed...

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed among women and is the second leading cause of cancer death. Homeopathic medicines are part of the alternative medicines that are given as a supportive therapy in breast cancer. The objective of this study was to investigate the anticancer activity of commercially available homeopathic preparations of Terminalia chebula (TC) and evaluate their nanoparticulate nature. METHODS: Mother tincture (MT) and other homeopathic preparations (3X, 6C and 30C) of TC were tested for their effect on the viability of breast cancer (MDAMB231 and MCF7) and non-cancerous (HEK 293) cell lines by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay...

BACKGROUND: The natural history of coronary artery disease (CAD) in patients with low-to-intermediate risk is not well characterized. Although earlier invasive serial studies have documented the progression of atherosclerotic burden, most were focused on high-risk patients only. The PARADIGM registry is a large, prospective, multinational dynamic observational registry of patients undergoing serial coronary computed tomographic angiography (CCTA). The primary aim of PARADIGM is to characterize the natural history of CAD in relation to clinical and laboratory data...

INTRODUCTION: Psychiatric patients are at increased risk of death from a number of natural and unnatural causes. This study examines the mortality causes of all psychiatric inpatients of an acute psychiatric unit at a general hospital in Portugal for sixteen years (1998 to 2013). MATERIAL AND METHODS: Twenty-one inpatients died at the inpatient unit between 1998 and 2013 (average 1.3 per year). A retrospective study through case-file review was carried to collect demographic characteristics, medical and psychiatry diagnosis...

Accumulating evidence indicates that senescent cells play an important role in many age-associated diseases. The pharmacological depletion of senescent cells (SCs) with a "senolytic agent", a small molecule that selectively kills SCs, is a potential novel therapeutic approach for these diseases. Recently, we discovered ABT-263, a potent and highly selective senolytic agent, by screening a library of rationally-selected compounds. With this screening approach, we also identified a second senolytic agent called piperlongumine (PL)...

Asthma is a heterogeneous disease characterized by symptoms of chronic inflammation and airway structural and functional changes. It affects about 300 million people worldwide and causes 250 000 deaths annually, but its symptoms can be greatly relieved by regular use of inhaled glucocorticoids (GCs). GCs exert their function through interacting with glucocorticoid receptors (GRs). Diosgenin is a naturally occurring steroidal saponin abundantly present in many medicinal plants, including Dioscorea nipponica, which shares a similar steroidal structure with GC...

BACKGROUND: Binding of beta 1,3/1,6 glucan of Ganoderma lucidum (G. lucidum) with the receptor results in a series of signal transfers (signalling cascades), which activates the transcription factors for regulating inflammation. Excess cholesterol intake leads to an increase in the distance between fat cells and capillaries, which may cause hypoxia in the fat tissue of obese mice. This hypoxia induces the death of fat cells, resulting in the inflammation of adipose tissue or an increase in the inflammatory gene expression associated with obesity...

All classic, non-surgical anticancer approaches like chemotherapy, radiotherapy or photodynamic therapy kill cancer cells by inducing severe oxidative stress. Even tough chemo- and radiotherapy are still a gold standard in cancer treatment, the identification of non-toxic compounds that enhance their selectivity, would allow for lowering their doses, reduce side effects and risk of second cancers. Many natural products have the ability to sensitize cancer cells to oxidative stress induced by chemo- and radiotherapy by limiting antioxidant capacity of cancer cells...